Give fast-food workers a break

Tuesday

Jul 29, 2014 at 10:47 AMJul 29, 2014 at 10:47 AM

I hate it when people disparage fast-food workers.For whatever reason, jobs in fast-food restaurants seem to be thought of as something to be ashamed of or mocked. People say things like, "I could never be without a job … I'd flip burgers if I had to." When someone gets a college degree that another feels is worthless, the joke is that the student should learn to say, "Would you like fries with that?"Let me tell you something … in 1990 I worked in a fast-food restaurant for all of two days. I couldn't hack it.The pace was unbelievably fast. There were buns and meat and condiments seemingly flying everywhere before coming together as one thing, being wrapped perfectly and sent down a chute to be served; there were fryer baskets going down and coming up continually. The orders on the screen kept coming, coming, coming.And the people who had been there for a while knew how to take all that chaos and make it work somehow.If you've never been in the kitchen during a breakfast-to-lunch change at a fast-food restaurant, do it sometime. The veterans can do it seamlessly … it almost seems like they grab crank handles at either wall, turn them and flip the floor to turn it into a completely different assortment of food products, condiments and food containers. You never really even see them changing out the bacon for hamburger patties or biscuits for hamburger buns.It's pretty amazing.There is much running about. The crew in the kitchen is preparing orders for two different sets of employees: The counter and the drive-thru. Those orders (about 75 percent of which come with special instructions) have to be kept straight, prepared, put on trays or in bags and given to customers.Next time you look at the tray containing meals for your family of five — you know, the one piled high with wrapped fish and chicken sandwiches, boxes of chicken nuggets and so many orders of fries they're falling all over the tray — think for just a minute about how many steps it took to get all those items onto that tray. Think about how many people were involved in preparing it.Someone very close to me worked in fast food for well over 30 years. She worked hard. She worked the early morning shift, so she rarely got to sleep in (and now, even though she's been retired for a few years, it's still rare for her to sleep past 8 a.m.). She never wanted to go into management, preferring instead to work the counter or drive-thru where she could have customer contact and get to know the regulars.She was good at her job. Very good. She rarely messed up orders; she made sure work stations and dining room tables were clean.She saw a lot of changes happen in the industry; by the time she retired the person who was her manager was someone who was decades younger than she was and who hadn't been on the job nearly as long as she had.Still, she went to work every day. She did so happily, because she loved the customers and the co-workers she'd worked alongside for years. She never made great money and she certainly didn't get all the thanks she deserved, but she took pride in her work and gave it all she had.I would venture to say most fast-food workers do the same. There are some that are just so friendly I can't believe it … because I know what kind of guff they take from the public.So next time you're ordering fast food, be kind. Try to remember that the person you're dealing with is a human being just like you are … a human being who is working for a living and deserves respect.Jamie Barrand is the executive editor of The Daily Reporter, Hillsdale Daily News, Bronson Journal and Jonesville Independent. Follow her on Twitter at @editorbarrand.